Saturday, June 29, 2013

Loyola New Orleans Professor Blasts The Hypocrisy In Paula Deen Case

Prof C.W. Cannon teaches English and New Orleans Studies at Loyola University has a provocative piece on the whole Paula Deen affair. See  Media hypocrisy and the n-word: Was Paula Deen fired for her sins or ours?

There are a few things I quibble with but in this age of Random House canceling Paula Deen 's  book contract  ( Is this going to be a new standard or just for this stoning ? ) it's a breath of fresh air. It's very honest and is the type of article we should be seeing more of in place of sadly what we have seen.

I agree there is some themes here and he makes the Class point very well. I very much agree with this part :

As the great black novelist Ralph Ellison noted 50 years ago, “Southern whites cannot walk, talk, sing, conceive of laws or justice, think of sex, love, the family or freedom without responding to the presence of the Negroes.” Anyone familiar with white and black Southern literature, from William Faulkner to Alice Walker, is aware that white Southern racism is more complex, intimate, and emotional than its Northern cousin. The immediate blacklisting of white Southerners who have the courage to examine their own racial feelings in good faith advances no useful anti-racist purpose.

He also interacts with people in the comments so take advantage of that.

2 comments:

Rick67 said...

I think this episode is largely about power and control. We can stigmatize an entire swath of the American population in order to neutralize their voice on political issues. White Southerners who might disagree with the current direction of the nation need to be silenced and delegitimized.

Anonymous said...

A person her age, raised in the deep south is supposed to lie about using that word......under oath?

come on